About the Show

It just feels really great that people went online and clicked on a button and said, 'This guy should get an award.'

Matilda star Bertie Carvel is making audiences laugh and gasp at the Shubert Theatre as the monstrous Miss Trunchbull. Theatergoers took note of his larger-than-life turn, and on May 5 Carvel earned the Audience Choice Award for Favorite Breakthrough Performance. Broadway.com caught up with Carvel after he accepted his award to find out how it feels to be loved for playing someone so menacing.

"To be in a town where I didn’t know anybody and to be voted for by the fans—I feel very moved, actually. It’s really cool! It just feels really great that people went online and clicked on a button and said, 'This guy should get an award.' It's nice that people have gone out of their way to celebrate what we’re doing."

Miss Trunchbull might be a cruel disciplinarian and former hammer-throwing world champion, but Carvel isn't letting any of the awards season competition go to his head. He says the whole Matilda team really believes in what they're doing and are thrilled audiences are enjoying the show each night.

"Everybody who is here tonight has done an amazing thing. The cliché that it’s nice to even be nominated is true, because, by and large, just to be part of the swell of enthusiasm about what’s happened in this season is the great thing. Who wins and loses awards is unnecessarily competitive, but this just feels rather benign and really nice."

Keep checking back on Broadway.com for full coverage of the Audience Choice Awards!